Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(6)
Author: Erica Stevens

Cade touched my cheek as he rested his forehead against mine. "No, it won’t be."

"Are they all dead?"

His silence was answer enough. I didn’t want to go over there and I certainly didn’t want Abby to see what was on the other side, but there were no other options. It took an hour before the hole was big enough to fit all our supplies and Barney, a dog I had adopted in Plymouth, but who had become more of Abby’s pet recently, through. It was another half an hour before we were all standing on the other side.

Aiden grabbed hold of Abby as she spun away with a disgusted cry and held her against his side. The urge to turn around gripped me but it was already too late. Even if I never looked again, the revolting images before me would forever be seared into my brain.

This side of the tunnel reminded me of a paintball course straight from a nightmare. The blood sprayed over the walls was nearly black in the beams of our lights as they played over the concrete walls and asphalt road. These people hadn’t been killed, they’d been massacred. Rotting body parts littered the tunnel; limbs had been brutally wrenched from the bodies and tossed haphazardly about like they were no more than discarded tissues. Snapped bones, joints and muscles stuck out from the decaying remnants of the lost souls.

My hand flew to my nose and mouth as I tried, and failed, to block the stench. Molly spun to face the pile of debris at my back and vomited. Since The Freezing we had all seen, and survived, horrors that none of us ever could have imagined, but this was the worst. This was the sadistic and brutal destruction of the human body that served no purpose other than to entertain the monsters that had destroyed it. I could almost hear the echoing screams of agony and terror that had, at one time, resonated within these walls.

Aiden comforted Abby the best he could as she started to cry. My eyes burned too, but I found I couldn’t master even the simple action of shedding tears right now. Cade’s arm encircled my waist, he pulled me against his side as a tremor began to work its way through my system. It was so difficult for me to believe that he was a part of the race that had inflicted this cruelty upon our planet.

"Why?" I whispered.

He dropped his head against mine and nuzzled my hair as his fingers stroked over my arm. I wondered briefly if the tension in his body was from the tragedy surrounding us, or because it had triggered his hunger and killer instincts. He couldn’t help what he was but looking at this place made me want to shriek with fury.

"There is no reason for this. Just focus on me, I’ll get you through." Cade’s words caused guilt to slither through me over my unfair and judgmental thoughts.

"We have to move," Darnell commanded in a clipped tone.

I kept my head bent as I pressed against Cade’s side and gained strength from his unwavering determination. I tried to focus on his smell but even his scent of cloves and sweat couldn’t block the hideous reek of this place. Molly and Abby were crying quietly, Jenna was as white as a ghost as her lower lip trembled.

Unlike the other stretch of tunnel, the street through here was relatively clean of all debris, except for the human remains. Lloyd’s smattering of orange freckles stood out starkly against his pale face as he shifted his rifle onto his back and stopped to pick up a box full of canned food. His orange red hair stood out from his face and his blue eyes were large behind his glasses. There was a rare slouch to his shoulders as he hefted the box into his arms. I didn’t particularly feel like eating anything that we’d found here but we couldn’t turn down the extra food.

The dead had brought metal barrels into the tunnel and the ash remains of cooking fires filled the bottom of them and lent a smoky aroma to the air. We came across areas that seemed to have been people’s sleeping quarters as we moved deeper into the tunnel. There hadn’t been much privacy, but blankets and sheets had been hung to delineate small rooms. We moved by a door set into the side of the tunnel, but I had no interest in knowing where it went as I was certain it was only to even smaller places.

Cade’s fingers dug into my waist and as I tilted my head back to meet his soulful eyes I saw true sadness there. It wasn’t sadness for the dead around us, but for me. He was sad because I was sad. Along with his sympathy though, I also saw the hunger I’d wondered about earlier.

I shuddered as he pulled me closer against him and briefly rested his chin on top of my head. He wasn’t cruel like the others of his kind, I knew he took no pleasure in the mayhem surrounding us, but he still had to survive. Being surrounded by all of this blood and death was fueling his ever present thirst, and though he wasn’t inherently a cruel being, I knew that I was the only one he truly cared about. He would do whatever he could to keep the people I cared about safe, but I was his number one concern.

I was also the one he yearned to feed from the most, though he never did. No matter how often I offered him the nourishment he desperately needed, he refused it. Things were different now though, he had even less opportunities to satisfy his appetite than before. If we didn’t get out of here soon he may have no choice but to allow me to satisfy him. I thought I should be troubled or repulsed by such a thing but I wasn’t. He was frightened he might hurt me but I was positive he wouldn’t.

Cade pulled his shirt over my nose as he urged me to move faster. I knew that being near me didn’t help with the urges that pulsed through him, but somehow he managed to keep himself under control despite the steadily increasing tension I felt humming through him.

Time was rapidly slipping through our fingers; we had to get free of this awful place soon. It wasn’t just the two of us starting to lose it but also the struggling group surrounding us. Even the more experienced soldiers were nearing their breaking point. Mick and Frank were bug eyed as they swung their guns rapidly back and forth. I was half afraid they were going to open fire at the first sound they heard.

Something clattered further down the tunnel. Before I could blink, or even react, Cade was shoving me behind him and whipping his knives out. Movement exploded around the turn at the end of the tunnel as one of the alien’s monstrous creations charged out of the murky depths. Liz, a middle aged woman with dark blond hair nearly knocked me over as she bolted past me with the look of an untamed horse trying to escape a wolf.

"Don’t run!" Jenna yelled after her but Liz didn’t appear to hear her.

I jumped as shots reverberated through the confined space. My ears rang incessantly as my heart beat a rapid staccato against my ribs as another creature barreled around the corner. These monstrosities were on the smaller side, but they were just as deadly as, and far faster than, the bloated larger ones that had gorged themselves on human blood. Cade threw back his arm and released one of his knives. It made a whistling sound as it whipped through the air with swift and deadly accuracy. A sickening squishy sound followed as it punctured through the monsters spongy outer body. Blood, most likely human, sprayed out of the wound but it didn’t slow its rapid pace. I aimed my gun at the other one and fired rapidly as it skittered perilously close to Lloyd.